MRIS has partnered with iCarnegie, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
- iCarnegie, founded in 1998, is a wholly owned educational subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
- It is an internationally recognized institution with a distinctive mix of world-class educational and research programmes in computer science, robotics, engineering, entertainment technology, business,public policy and fine arts.
- iCarnegie provides a great opportunity to use state-of-the-art curricula in Robotics as a platform to teach Computer Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (CS-STEM) to children at the junior, middle and high school levels.
The iCarnegie Program is implemented under the able leadership and guidance of Kelly Obarski.
Kelly Obarski
STEAM Program Director iCarnegie Global Learning, LLC Powered by Carnegie Mellon Instrumental in creating and implementing a STEM strategic vision by enhancing the curriculum through evaluative tools (pre & post tests, focus groups, lesson surveys), robotic teacher certification, teacher professional development, curriculum mapping, client engagement in India, marketing to new international clients, writing new curriculum and expanding STEM into STEAM through new career pathways. Along with Ms Bambi Brewer, she has very successfully organized the training sessions for us which has helped us to understand the way to conduct the course module wise.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE iCARNEGIE ROBOTICS PROGRAM
- It develops and delivers high quality scalable educational programs around the globe that are practical and help build capacity regionally and nationally.
- iCarnegie uses a blended learning approach. It has developed multiple mechanisms that help ensure that the level of instruction provided can be monitored, adjusted and improved over time.
- The instructions are based on modules that consist of programming,
multi sensor robotics control, building relationships, managing
projects and designing. - To grow the intellectual capital that a country needs to compete globally by exposing students to proven educational technologies through Computers Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (CS-STEM).
- The students create a lego world in the iCarnegie lab.
- A learning Management System ensures every child utilizes his/her email id (for Robotics) and enhances the learning aspects both at school and home effectively.
- A soft skill element involving teamwork and communications skills are emphasized, explored and practiced.
- It provides a project based experience where application of the first two tiers is conducted on a real live project.
The Robotics Programme run for the last 3 years has caught the fancy of the young technocrats. This programme slowly builds up analytical and logical thinking in the children All the Robotic lessons are based around the use of the LEGO MINDSTORM robots. The beauty of the MINDSTORM robot kit is that one can build multiple robots from the same kit.
THE COURSES PLANNED
- The introduction to NXT Robot Programming
- Advanced NXT Robot Programming
- Introduction to Natural Language Programming
- Introduction to Robotics
- Introduction to Gaming
The success of the programme is evident in the fact that MRIS students after passing Grade XII are opting for Robotics Engineering as a viable career and future growth option.
FEEDBACK ON iCARNEGIE FROM PARENTS AND STUDENTS
Exposure to Robotics proved to be a milestone for my son Sanket. ICarnegie’s Robotics program brought back his passion for designing and building machines so much so that he has decided to take it up as his career.The school has been extremely supportive and encouraging.
Geetika Goyal (Mother of Sanket Goyal)
As a child, I loved Mechanics sets, making working models of machines using motors, pulleys & wheels, usually improvising on
the given set of designs. This passion got a different turn when my school introduced Robotics as a subject, in collaboration with iCarnegie. Exposure to LEGO NXT Mindstorm kit as a teenager has proved to be a turning point in my life. I realised that I could study this subject, experiment and innovate for hours at a stretch. I am joining SRM, Chennai for B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering and then want to pursue Masters in Robotic Engineering.
Sanket Goyal
iCarnegie is an ingenious method of teaching students the vast subject of robotics. Building and programming the robots not only increases our thinking skills but also encourages us to take up a technical career in future. The iCarnegie classes were a great way for us to apply what we learnt in our science and math classes. The devices we created namely the CommuniCane and RALPH were very effective and brought us great success.
Sreekar Voleti
iCarnegie has provided us with the perfect platform to enhance our mathematical and scientific skills through the various challenges requiring us to program robots in a competitive atmosphere.
Prakhar Goyal
iCarnegie not only helped us to understand concepts learnt in class but also helped us to apply them in our everyday lives. The various Robotics competitions like FLL (First Lego League) and IRO (Indian Robot Olympiad) allow students to think deeply on simple topics and apply various problem solving techniques, expanding their knowledge further. With the use of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) we brought many ideas from paper to actual working models.
Sparsh Mishra
I am glad that I was a part of the icarnegie program started by our school. It really encouraged me to think out of the box while building robots and in the process tuned my technical skills.
Mayank Jain
- Children enjoy the subject to the fullest and are very keen to attend the classes. They eagerly wait for the robotics classes every week and look forward to doing their best in the classes.
- It has boosted their team work too.
- Subject helps students to improve their analytical and logical skills.
- It is going to lay a strong foundation for the students who want to accelerate in the field of Robotics.